Hoops Nugs: Hide the Booze Edition
OG: Over GoldLock up the liquor as it was announced yesterday that Bob Huggins and his WVU Mountaineers will visit Value City Arena next year with a return trip to Morgantown the following season.
I know many in Buckeye country are fond of the old slickster from his days as Eldon’s assistant but I’ve always found him smug and slimy and hated his UC teams that featured thugs like Danny Fortson, Kenyon Martin, Ruben Patterson and my personal favorite, Donald Little. Remember him, he’s the one who taped his roommate to a chair, burned him with a coat hanger, launched free weights at his dome and hit him with a whiskey bottle before stabbing him in the leg. Damn, Capone.
That said, I can’t argue with how Huggy Bear turned around UC, put Kansas State on the map and now he’s got WVU in the upper tier of the Big East.
Am I in the minority in my feelings towards Chuggins?
In other news, former Cyclone forward Wesley Johnson will visit Ohio State in the coming weeks. The 6′7″ Johnson is also heavily considering Syracuse, WVU and Pitt and will have two years of eligibility remaining starting with the 2009-10 season.
Matta likes Johnson as a sorta-power forward that can step out on the wing and hit the three. He averaged over 12 points a game last season despite playing on a bad wheel.
14 Responses
My father has Huggins’ brother as a client, and it was interesting to hear some of the blowback when the OSU job was open, and OSU was looking to hire a replacement for D.O.B. Huggins’ brother told my father that Bob tried desperately to get the OSU job, but Andy Geiger wouldn’t even countenance an off-the-record interview with him. From what I understand, through intermediaries, Gieger told Huggins - and a few folks within the OSU program who wanted to give Huggins a look - that he was simply too radioactive to be hired at OSU. His graduation rates stunk, he had plenty of off-court problems with his players, his players’ grades stunk, he’d turned UC into a juco waystation, and he had a terrible reputation for indiscipline. All that was *before* his drunk driving arrest, of course.
Huggins’ brother told my father that OSU simply didn’t feel they could replace D.O.B. with someone like Huggins’ reputation, especially since OSU was hoping that the NCAA would go a little easy on them in the penalty phase following D.O.B.’s antics - which they did.
I’m looking forward to the games, though. They’ll be tough to play.
Joe Fox - June 19th, 2008 at 9:51 am - #
Huggins is the kind of coach that necessitates the new APR standards.
Sure, he can coach, but it seems his success on the court comes only at the detriment of his players.
Thanks for sharing the story Joe. I’m glad OSU wouldn’t even consider him.
BrotherBuck - June 19th, 2008 at 10:08 am - #
props to geiger if all that’s true…i honestly’ i would’ve stopped supporting the hoops program if huggins got the job and I have been a diehard osu hoops fan through the lean 80’s to now…i used to vcr tape all of hopson’s games and watch them over and over as a kid..i think I still have the florida int’l game where he broke the scoring record…
chris - June 19th, 2008 at 10:12 am - #
The timing wasn’t right for Huggins, with all the baggage. But I like him.
He recruited what he could get to UC. Lets face it, what star player would want to go to a commuter school whose only basketball success was in the early ’60s? When let go by them, the new President said she wanted the basketball program to be more like Duke, which is fine academically, but it’ll be a long time before they are a basketball power again, if ever.
TLB - June 19th, 2008 at 10:31 am - #
I’ve always had a soft spot for Huggins as well. One of those guys that you absolutely hate, unless he’s on your team, then you love him.
That gold suit is balls, too.
Boeckman Fett - June 19th, 2008 at 10:33 am - #
Besides the off-the-court antics of his, I never really thought he was a great coach. He had somebody pretty talented (in a basketball sense, not in a committing felonies sense) teams and never was able to do much in the tourny. And not in a “he didn’t win it all” way either, I think his teams were a guaranteed 1st or 2nd round loss every year and that deminished him in my mind. I think his coaching style wore on his players and by the end of the year they were burnt out and ready to pack it in and get on with their NBA contracts/sentences.
Greg Oden's Tonsils - June 19th, 2008 at 11:25 am - #
Kenyon Martin is not a thug! The other guys…well…..
generaladm - June 19th, 2008 at 12:27 pm - #
Joe,
Which Huggins brother; Harry or Larry? My brother played on same team with Bobby at IVS; I think he graduated with Harry. Bobby has similar coaching intensity as his father, Charlie, but I think the ol’ man stayed away from ‘the sause’.
Ken
Ken - June 19th, 2008 at 1:41 pm - #
Joe Fox, I remember the same type of scenario playing out when OSU was looking for a replacement for Randy Ayers. It was reported through the grapevine that Bob Huggins was interested. But when approached about it, Andy Geiger firmly stated that Huggins would not be a candidate. He never said why, but I imagine it was for the reasons you stated.
GoBucks89 - June 19th, 2008 at 2:07 pm - #
I grew up in Cincy and am a huge Bearcat basketball fan. Huggins is practically a god down there. Despite all his faults as a coach and a person (DUI, terrible academic performance by his players, early exits in the tourney), he made UC basketball relevant on a national scale. It was always frustrating watching his teams play. They were more talented than almost every team they played but incredibly dumb. UC’s best offensive play was: somebody chuck up a terrible shot and Kenyon Martin/James White/Danny Fortson/Eric Hicks/Melvin Levitt would throw down a monsterous dunk off the rebound. The Huggins era at UC is almost identical in every way to the current Calipari era at Memphis…talented team, off-court problems, crappy conference, etc.
You can bash Huggins all you want, but he gave those “thugs” of his a chance to better their lives by going to college. My all-time favorite Bearcat (Eric Hicks) would probably be dead or in jail now if not for Huggins giving him a chance at UC.
slim charles 89 - June 19th, 2008 at 2:28 pm - #
Ken,
I don’t know which brother it is - I’ll see Dad this weekend, so I’ll ask him. His brother was pretty straightforward about the whole thing, and Dad got the sense that his brother felt badly for Bob, but understood the position in which OSU found itself after D.O.B.
Joe Fox - June 19th, 2008 at 3:43 pm - #
I like him the same way I like Bruce Pearl (looks like they might use the same tailor). They add some entertainment value to college hoops, but I don’t think I would want either coaching my squad. Thad is the rad!
Travis - June 19th, 2008 at 4:25 pm - #
That suit looks like some cheap motel is missing a shower curtain.
Gawd.
Joe Fox - June 20th, 2008 at 12:09 am - #
Looks like something Eddie from the Vacation movies would wear.
Principal Skinner - June 20th, 2008 at 8:25 am - #
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